In the 1940s, a new style of moviemaking the French dubbed "film noir" emerged from the world of pulp magazines, paperback thrillers, and sensational newspaper stories about crime. Tough and unsentimental, these fatalistic films depicted a shadowy universe at once brutal, erotic, and morally ambiguous. In these five restored and remastered black and white features from the 1950s, such directors as Fritz Lang, Don Siegel, Edward Dymtryk, and Phil Karlson elicit brilliant performances by Lee Marvin, Eli Wallach, Vince Edwards, Gloria Grahame, and others. In 5 Against the House (1955), Kim Novak and four war vets plot to rob a casino in Reno; in The Big Heat (1953), Glenn Ford sacrifices everything he holds dear to carry out a vendetta against two brutal mobsters. Special features include Martin Scorsese on Murder by Contract (1958), The Sniper (1952), and The Big Heat (1953).